Best Practice Report

Sourcing Professionals Need To Clarify Their Role In Evaluating Emerging Technology

January 21st, 2011
Christopher Andrews, VP, Research Product Management
Christopher Andrews VP, Research Product Management
With contributors:
Christine Ferrusi Ross , Mark Grannan

Summary

While many sourcing and vendor management (SVM) professionals frequently play a critical role in evaluating emerging technologies, their exact responsibilities in this process are not always clearly defined. The results from Forrester's global survey of 113 SVM professionals indicate that many respondents believe that new technologies — particularly SaaS and business analytics — will have significant impact on their business, but far fewer respondents play an active role in sourcing these technologies. The results indicate that SVM professionals can increase their relevance in sourcing many new technologies but particularly those related to mobility and unified communications (UC). In all emerging technology evaluations, SVM professionals can increase their business value by focusing on their differentiated strengths and communicating these strengths to new parts of their companies.

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